From Piano to Toy Piano: composing as a Rite of Passage
Mercedes Zavala
Conservatorio Profesional de Música Teresa Berganza, Madrid, Spain
ABSTRACT
In this talk
I will discuss the work I did with the piano students of Antonietta Loffredo in
the workshop "Seriously or jokingly? Toy piano composition workshop for
early stages". As a result of this
workshop, the students wrote a series of pieces composed by them for toy piano.
We also worked on improvisation as a complementary activity with elements differentiated from, but also related to, musical composition.
The choice
of the toy piano favors some aspects that help the initiation to compose. At this
student level, to compose means a change of perspective, a step to another way
of understanding music, indeed a passage to another musical reality. The toy
piano is a new instrument for all of them, so they have to do prior work of
exploration to understand how that new instrument works, and they have to react
to its sound and possibilities; but at the same time it is a familiar
instrument, so they can manage it very well. Also, it has a restricted range of
possibilities that makes the writing easier. Last, but not least, the toy piano
is freed from the sometimes overwhelming weight of music repertoire of the past.
This gives the act of creating music a playful aspect, outside the overwhelming
responsibility that the concept of composing sometimes implies. The response of
the pupils was very interesting in many senses, as you will see and hear.
